


An Empire in Ulthos

by sabhnc



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms
Genre: F/F, Genocide, History, Innocent people get hurt and die, Justice by disease I guess, More Valyrians, Reads kinda like a history, Slavery, Slavery is bad y'all, The mess after the doom, Valyrians were evil, everyone dies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-25
Updated: 2019-06-25
Packaged: 2020-05-19 09:40:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19354390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sabhnc/pseuds/sabhnc
Summary: Another family of Dragonlords survived the Doom. Rather than heading home or west, they head east, hoping to set up a new empire on an unknown continent.A heads up, this work has Valyrian Valyrians. Kind to family, murderous towards others, and treating non-Valyrians like scum.This work has slavery, but is not particularly graphic regarding its depiction. It is also very dark and leads to genocide. If you want moral Valyrians, this is not your fic.





	An Empire in Ulthos

Fucking hells. How had everything changed so suddenly? She’d barely made it out of Lys with his life, her wife and children had left minutes before. Their dragons were injured, the result of an angry mob numbering larger than any army in history.

There were few options. Valyria was destroyed, they could see the smoke rising. Aurion had declared his intention to march there. There was still potent magic coming from the peninsula. But it was different. Wrong. It reeked of death. They had been tempted to go there, going so far as to fly their dragons from Lys towards the peninsula. They had stopped at its edges. Smoke rose from the sea. They couldn’t risk their children, not for that. They couldn’t risk each other either.

The cities of Valyria were hardly welcoming to dragonlords. The Targaryens would not appreciate another family encroaching on their claim of Westeros. They Stepstones were too close to the remnants of the Freehold. The Dothraki would be getting free anytime soon. Lhazar was weak, but would soon fall under the domain of the Dothraki. Qarth was full of warlocks, they could never be trusted. And so they flew further and further east. They flew over the Red Waste, the Bone Mountains, over the Golden Empire of Yi Ti and the Plains of the Jogos Nhai, stopping only when their dragons needed to rest.

They stopped to rest at the Hidden Sea, as the ancients had called it. Truly, it was an enormous lake, freshwater that made the small valley productive enough farmland to support major cities. Rafts, made of bound dirt and plants, floated on the surface like small islands, each growing different crops. A large city made been made at the center of the lake. Rafts had been bound together, then stone and wood buildings built over top, securely floating on the surface thanks to some magic or science even the Freehold’s top mages didn’t understand. Or hadn’t, rather.

Stone bridges connected the floating city to its neighbors. Carcosa was a city carved into the mountainsides. It was formed of several levels, from the ground on up to the emperor’s castle, which rested at the top of the small hill that marked the reemergence of the Mountains of Morn. Across the lake was the City of Wings, where thousands of kites flew daily, displaying the colors of prominent houses.

Much as they wanted to, they could not stay in these lands. They were meant to rule, dragons always were. Once their dragons rested, and at last fully healed, they would take flight once more.

This time they flew south, and landed as well, not for rest this time. The Isle of Ulos would be their starting point. An entire continent lay to the south, another to the east.

The island was made of tall mountains and igneous rock, the same as their homeland. Their dragons landed slowly, roaring as they reached the ground. A dramatic entrance if ever there was one.

Before coming here, they had learned some of the language from the Asshai’i. It had been a reasonable trade, one drop of dragon’s blood. The sorcerer had not expected them to have vials of a different dragon’s blood. Thus unable to tame one of their six dragons, the sorcerer had screamed and stormed out, leaving his assistant to teach them the language.

 

“ I am Saera,”  she called out. “ Daughter of Ulaen Belaerys, High Lord of the Valyrian Freehold. These are my wife, Aenma Iraen, daughter of High Lord Daemon Iraen of the Valyrian Freehold. You will bow to us, or burn. This island is our island now. Bend before us if you want to live. ” As the villagers bowed deeply, Saera whispered to her wife,

“ _ We need to teach them Valyrian. Soon. _ ”

“ _ I agree, _ ” Aenma said. “ _ That was the worst thing I’ve heard since Aegor’s proposal. _ ” Saera laughed and kissed her wife, their lips meeting in a gentle embrace.

 

The Valyrian Empire did not start gracefully, but proudly, with a strong arm and a whip. The people of Ulos were forced into their mines, their children taken young and indoctrinated, treated just well enough and punished just enough to persuade them their rightful place was on their knees before the Valyrians.

The mines dug deep into the mountains, into the volcanoes. They dug up gems, broke through dragonglass, found gold and silver in troves. They were killed for the Valyrian’s magic and told it was the highest honor. Within four generations, they were convinced it was.

Some said it was the dragons, others said it was the mines. The volcanoes, after more than a thousand years lying dormant, had become active once more.

It wasn’t until their grip on the island was complete that the war began in earnest. Empress Jaezab II led the first trip to Ulthos, though she was naught but a princess at the time, in 118 VU (Valyrīha Udrāzma, or Valyrian Rule, roughly 1 AC). They created two fortified settlements and began searching for goods and people immediately. The trees were used for the lumber yards, and the empty fields for farms. The land of Ulos had few trees and next to no farmland. The expensive importation of food from Yi Ti could finally end. Thousands of Ulosi were settled in their new colonies.

The colonies were attack by large forces of the natives. They were tawny-skinned, weilding bows better even than the dothraki. They fought not in pitched battles but in ambushes in their forests. The Ulosi and Valyrian fighters wages a similar war, capturing hundreds, then thousands, forcing them into slavery. They were placed below the Ulosi, but not to serve them. They were the property of the Valyrians, whereas the Ulosi were their loyal servants, awarded privileges for their continued service. At least, that was the lie told to the Ulosi. The distinctions lessened and disappeared as the Valyrian Empire spread across Ulthos. They took over the entirety of the jungles, then climbed the mountains, flying atop them on dragonback. There a civilization existed, a powerful empire. Their army numbered near a hundred thousand. They gathered near their capital, a city of a forgotten name. The city and the army alike burned as the Valyrians and their dragons destroyed them.

After the death of the entire royal line and their army, the people of the mountains bowed to the Valyrians. They had served their kings as the Ulosi served their emperors, and continued to do so with their new silver-haired, purple-eyed lords.

From the mountains, the dragonlords saw a desert, followed by a grassland, wide as the eye could see. Over the next fifty years (144 VU-194 VU/27 AC-77 AC) the dragonlords rapidly expanded, conquering and enslaving all they could. Pure of dragonblood, they remained the picture of health as their slaves and servants perished in the jungle, the cold, and the heat. Their impressive navy, grown large from the fallen trees of the jungle, moved nearly 200,000 to the great plains between 201 and 220 VU.

They received word from the outside world, though slowly. They learned of the Targaryen’s conquests in 130 VU, thirteen years after they’d begun. It was only four years later they learned of Westeros’ lack of slavery. They declared it as a weakness, treating with the local nobility instead of destroying their power, the structures it was built upon, and taking their wealth.

Under Emperor Daemon I, the Valyrian empire turned its eyes towards Sothorys. Though the emperor was an old man by the time his plans were finished, his grandsons led the fleet across the Jade Sea. 150,000 soldiers and sailors traveled to Sothorys, alongside a quarter million settlers. By the end of the first year, most had died. 22,000 soldiers and 41,000 settlers remained. The Valyrians remained immune.

The settlers remained in Sothoryos, but eight thousand soldiers traveled back, the hulls of the ships filled with the short men of the continent. They returned to Ulos in 255 VU, where Prince Aemon received a royal welcome. The new slaves were then sent to Ulthos, where they would serve in the lumber industry.

In 258 VU, Princess Naerys returned from Sothoryos. The last of the settlers and soldiers had succumbed to disease. Their ships, forts, and garb was burned by the natives. The royal family was terrified of the new disease she mentioned. The one that had killed her sister.

In 261 VU, one of the mountain cities in Ulthos had an outbreak of Green Fever, which quickly spread. Only the Sothoryi seemed to be immune, and many fell to the disease. A few months later, there was an outbreak of yellowgum in the grasslands. In early 262 VU, there was an outbreak of Red Death in the first colonies of Ulthos. The outbreaks spread quickly. Green fever killed gently, yellowgum slowly, and Red Death rapidly but painfully. After two days on incubation, one would bleed from the nose, then the fingertips, then eyes, and soon from every pore, dying within ten minutes.

Ulos was closed to everyone in a desperate attempt to stop the spread. But Red Death soon arrived. Only the Valyrians were immune to these diseases.

In 263 VU, the capital city on Ulose was hit hard by greyscale. It was the first disease that cared not that they had dragon’s blood. Their hands, feet, legs, faces, and organs all turned to stone as they died slowly, painfully. Many who contracted greyscale sought out victims of Red Death in the hope of getting a kinder, quicker death.

In 265 VU, a woman showed up in Yin, claiming to be Shaera Belaerys, princess of the Valyrian Empire in Ulthos. She said she was all that was left. Every slave, servant, citizen, soldier, and royal had died. She came on dragonback. The dragon’s claws had turned to stone, as had the woman’s left arm. Their arrival set off an outbreak of greyscale in Yi Ti, which then spread to the rest of Essos. The dragon crumbled to dust alongside its rider, marking the end of an era. The last of a long line that was meant to die out, leaving the Targaryens as the sole dragonlords in the world.


End file.
